JACKSON, MS -- The Mississippi Senate gave the green light to increasing the state’s current cigarette excise tax of 18 cents per-pack, reports the Associated Press.

The state Senate took up the measure last Friday and this week approved increasing the current cigarette excise tax in exchange for a reduction, and eventually the elimination, of the state’s 7 percent grocery sales tax on groceries and most other retail items, notes the news source.

Mississippi has one of the lowest cigarette tax rates in the United States at 18 cents per-pack. The state Senate-passed bill would increase the rate to 75 cents per-pack on July 1, and then to $1 per-pack on July 1, 2007.

If the measure does pass both chambers, it will likely face a brick wall in the governor’s office. Gov. Haley Barbour does not support a tax increase on cigarettes, or any tax increases in general. Republican Gov. Haley Barbour said on Friday: "I'm against raising anybody's taxes. Period."